A judge has given defense attorneys until May 16 to file severance motions on behalf of the three defendants charged in the slaying of Aspen native Nancy Pfister.

At a hearing Tuesday in Pitkin County District Court, defense attorneys revealed their aims to lobby the court to sever the case against Front Range couple Nancy and William Styler III from the third defendant, longtime Alpine Bank employee Katherine Carpenter, also an Aspen resident.

“We might request a severance,” said Public Defender Tina Fang, one of two attorneys for William Styler — who once practiced anesthesiology in the Denver area. “It’s obvious to me that we are going to have highly antagonistic defenses with Carpenter.”

Fang did not elaborate, but attorneys for Nancy Styler and Carpenter concurred that severance motions likely would be filed.

“I echo the concerns of Fang and [Garth] McCarty [Nancy Styler’s counsel] about severance,” said Greg Greer, one of Carpenter’s two defense attorneys.

Should Pitkin County District Court Judge Gail Nichols rule in favor of the severance motions, the preliminary hearing, which was set Tuesday for June 9 to 13, would be split into two parts: one for Carpenter, the other for the Stylers. Preliminary hearings are conducted to determine whether prosecutors have cause to move a case forward. In those hearings, a judge weighs the evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution.

Suspects kept separate in courtroom

All three suspects are in custody, without bond, at separate jail facilities in the area.

Sheriff’s deputies separately escorted the defendants into the near-full courtroom through the rear clerk’s entrance. Similar to previous hearings, William Styler was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair. As standard operating procedure, the three defendants were shackled at the ankles and wrists.

Other than confiding with their attorneys, the trio sat silently during Tuesday’s hearing, which lasted nearly two hours. They were kept separate as Carpenter, 56, sat in back row of the jury box with her attorneys, while William Styler, 66, was positioned at the defendant’s table behind Nancy Styler, 62. On a few instances, the wife offered expressionless glances at her husband.

Pitkin County Sheriff’s deputies arrested the Styler couple at the Aspenalt Lodge in Basalt on March 3; Carpenter was arrested at her Aspen home on March 14.

The arrest warrant affidavit in the case remains under seal, and authorities have not provided public statements about Carpenter’s relationship with the Stylers.

However, status updates on Pfister’s Facebook page suggested that the Stylers had rented Pfister’s West Buttermilk home since late November.

In a post on her Facebook page dated Feb. 6, Pfister, who was in Australia as the time, said that she was seeking a tenant for her home and that “Kathy carpenter from alpine Bank will show anyone interested the ropes, watering greenhouse, Gabe’s stuff,etc. Very easy to contact me via email, thanks in advance!!!”

Three days earlier, on Feb. 3, Pfister said on her Facebook page that her West Buttermilk home would be available for rent “around” Feb. 22. Pfister said her current tenants — the Styler couple — are “not paying rent and they haven’t paid utilities.”

At approximately 8:14 p.m. on Feb. 26, Pfister’s body was discovered inside a closet at her West Buttermilk Road home. On April 16, the Pitkin County Coroner’s Office issued a statement saying that she died of blunt force trauma to the head, and her body was not discovered until approximately 36 hours after her death. She was 57.